Spanish artist Pablo Picasso’s painting “Woman of the Hour” sold at auction for 130 million euros.

Published in: 09/11/2023 – 15:37

2 minutes

Sold in a telephone auction, the painting was painted by Picasso in 1932 and painted by French painter Marie-Thérèse Walter, one of the spouses of the Spanish artist, who has died aged 91. The estimated price of the painting is 120 million dollars.

Marie-Therese Walter, “Picasso’s golden muse,” whom Picasso met in Paris in 1927 when he married the Russian-Ukrainian ballerina Olga Kokhlova, but Walter featured in many of his works.

The Spanish artist also painted it in the painting “Sleeping Woman” (1934), which will be offered at a public auction organized by Christie’s on Thursday, which is expected to fetch between 25 and 35 million dollars. In 2021, Christie’s “The Woman Sitting by the Window (Marie Therese)” sold for $103 million.

The painting “Woman of the Hour” belonged to the wealthy American Emily Fisher Landau, who died this year at the age of 102. The painting hung in his room, and his collection includes works by major artists. For sale at auction on Wednesday and Thursday evenings in Manhattan.

During the evening, American expressionist Jasper Johns’ painting “Two Flags” sold for $41 million, while American painter and photographer Ed Russo’s “Confirm the Last Letter” sold for $39.4 million.

However, the most important item sold during the evening was Picasso’s painting “Woman of the Hour”, which reached a third of the sale value, while the figure sold for “Woman of the Hour” was the second highest amount. Picasso’s works include no fewer than six paintings that are now worth more than $100 million in the artist’s possession.

The record for a completed work by Picasso goes to the painting “Women of Algeria (version “O”), which sold for $179.4 million. The work is an oil on canvas painting completed by the artist in 1955. The most expensive piece of contemporary art sold at auction.